Great Western Coffee Shop

In my capacity as Vice Chair of the Melksham Railway Development Group, I have received a

Rail User Groups (RUGs) Survey through the post from Passenger Focus.

As I did not receive a survey for "The Coffee Shop" (which, surely, could be described as a rail user group), nor "Save the Train" (which could, arguably, be excluded since we have no appropriate trains to use any more  :-[ ), I called PassengerFocus ... and I have their permission to distribute the survey further as appropriate.

If you represent or are with a Rail User Group, and don't have a copy of the survey, I've put a .pdf you can download here (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/pfocus.pdf) ...

Question for everyone - DO YOU FEEL THAT THE COFFEE SHOP IS A RAIL USER GROUP, and if so, should we complete the survey?

Graham

Although I have attended the occasional WWRUG I feel far more active within the remit of the 'Coffeeshop', therefore unless there are definitions that Passenger Focus place on being a RUG then I believe we should contribute.

[Edit] eg we have to have a subscription scheme of some sort.

Thanks, Tramway ... and indeed the voting so far shows a substantial majority who would describe us as a "RUG", and in favour of completing the survey.  And on the basis of that' I'm going to post up here the questions being asked, and to request that anyone who has strong views / wants to make any specific inputs to follow up on this thread for discussion.   I don't (as yet) want to bias any discussions here with my own personal ideas, but I will be discussing some of the questions with the moderator team - some of them provide excellent food for thought.

On "subscription" - we already have such a scheme in place in that new members must sign up to the forum before they can contribute, and before they can read certain boards.


Any thoughts / inputs on these questions, answered w.r.t. the coffee shop?

1. How long has your group been established?

2. How often does your group meet?

3. How is your group funded?

4. How many members do you have?

5. Does your group have an AGM?

6. Does your group have a newsletter?

7. How is your newsletter distributed
(only to be answered if Q6 is yes)

8. Do you have any ongoing projects at the moment?

9. Tell us briefly

10. What are your group's top 3 priorities?

11. Do you liaise with other groups in your area?

12. Please tell us which groups you liaise with

13. Has your group had any previous contact with Passenger Focus?

14. How often do your members log on to the Passenger Focus web site?

15. Does our website give you the information you require

16. What additional Information would you find useful on our web site?

Advice and guidance on setting up a new RUG
Advice and guidance on responding to formal consultations affecting rail passengers
Advice and guidance onundertaking your own research and mystery shoppoing
Copies of our newsletters and reports
Copies of our research findings
Details of current legsisaltion affecting rail passengers
Contact details and links to major industry organisations, train companies and voluntary organisation support groups
Other

17. If you do not have access to the Internet, do you want hard copies of our reports, researches and newsletters?  If so, please confirm the address you want us to send the information to.

18. Do you have any other comments about Passenger focus and how we can offer greater support to your group.

Poll concluded (One week after I opened it ...)

I hope I didn't sway anyone with my intial comments which told you my personal view that we *are* a RUG (Rail User Group) but anyway, that's how 85% or so of the votes went, so we (moderators) will answer the Passenger Focus survey.

Please - anyone who has any specific thoughts / inputs (or perhaps is a weel established passenger member here and would like to lend a hand) ... follow up, email me, p.m. me ...

As you may have read, at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=4005.0, grahame has already responded on behalf of his particular 'rail user group' campaign, Save the Train.  In which case, you will also have read that (in what can only have been a light-headed moment) I volunteered to respond on behalf of the Coffee Shop forum.

If anyone has any comments they'd like me to include, please either post them here or send me a personal message, if you prefer.

For members of our 'frequent posters club', there is a further topic, at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=4016.0, with a draft reply and a similar invitation to comment.  I'm not necessarily 'hiding' anything there, but that topic does include my personal contact details, for example, so I'd prefer to keep it out of the open forum while we finalise our response!

To keep up the momentum of responses to Passenger Focus, I'd like to send an e-mail with the final version by Friday (12 Dec), so your prompt replies would be welcome!

Thanks,

Chris ;)